niece, Miss Dale; I
believe that he was engaged to marry her, or, at any rate, that some
such proposition had been made."

"Proposition! Why, sir, it was a thing so completely understood that
everybody knew it in the county. It was so positively fixed that
there was no secret about it. Upon my honour, Mr Pratt, I can't as
yet understand it. If I remember right, its not a fortnight since
he left my house at Allington,--not a fortnight. And that poor girl
was with him on the morning of his going as his betrothed bride.
Not a fortnight since! And now I've had a letter from an old family
friend telling me that he is going to marry one of Lord de Courcy's
daughters! I went instantly off to Courcy, and found that he had
started for London. Now, I have followed him here; and you tell me
it's all true."

"I am afraid it is, Mr Dale; too true."

"I don't understand it; I don't, indeed. I cannot bring myself to
believe that the man who was sitting the other day at my table should
be so great a scoundrel. Did he mean it all the time that he was
there?"

"No; certainly not. Lady Alexandrina de Courcy was, I believe, an old
friend of his;--with whom, perhaps, he had had some lover's quarrel.
On his going to Courcy they made it up, and this is the result."

"And that is to be sufficient for my poor girl?"

"You will, of course, understand that I am not defending Mr Crosbie.
The whole affair is very sad,--very sad, indeed. I can only say, in
his excuse, that he is not the first man who has behaved badly to a
lady."

"And that is his message to me, is it? And that is what I am to tell
my niece? You have been deceived by a scoundrel. But what then? You
are not the first! Mr Pratt, I give you my word as a gentleman, I do
not understand it. I have lived a good deal out of the world, and am,
therefore, perhaps; more astonished than I ought to be."

"Mr Dale, I feel for you--"

"Feel for me! What is to become of my girl? And do you suppose that
I will let this other marriage go on; that I will not tell the
de Courcys, and all the world at large, what sort of a man this
is,--that I will not get at him to punish him? Does he think that I
will put up with this?"

"I do not know what he thinks; I must only beg that you will not mix
me up in the matter--as though I were a participator in his offence."

"Will you tell him from me that I desire to see him?"

"I do not think that that would do any good."

"Never mind, sir; you hav